News: Report on "The Facts about Open Access"

The first full-scale study of the effects of alternative business models for scholarly journals was published recently. The report entitled "The Facts About Open Access" was commissioned by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP). Its objective was to determine the impact of open access on scholarly journals and to establish a baseline of comparison with traditional subscription publishing.

The comparison was based on a survey of almost 500 journals. The survey covers the full spectrum of business models being used in scholarly publishing – from traditional access provided primarily via subscriptions (Paid Subscription Access) through Delayed Open Access ( NIH) to Optional (author's choice of payment) and Full Open Access (no fee). Some findings were surprising and some not so surprising:

• More subscription-access journals break even or produce surpluses than do open-access journals.
• More than half of all journals, whether traditional or openly accessible, were considering changing their business models within three years.
• A larger percentage of subscription-access journals than open-access journals charge authors fees to publish.

The report states it is impossible to yet draw any firm conclusions as to whether Open Access publishing is a financially viable business model for scholarly journals. The ALPSP report does recognize "we all need to find a better model (or models) to provide wide and speedy access to research findings in the interests of science".

Data and analysis of peer review practices for the study journals was also published as part of this report.

Carol Hoover, hoover@lanl.gov

Posted by lpray at November 23, 2005 01:00 PM